In Roman times, Wasselonne was a vicus populated by the
Triboci. The village was situated on the Durenberg hill and the left bank of the Mossig. In the
Merovingian period, Wasselonne prospered thanks to its proximity to
Kirchheim, where a large and popular royal residence was established. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Wasselonne was certainly densely populated. At the beginning of the 15th century, Wasselonne Castle was described as one of the most important fortresses in Lower Alsace. It was the seat of the bailiwick of Wasselonne. The stones used for its construction were extracted from the pink
sandstone quarries of the Kronthal, identical to those used for the construction of
Strasbourg cathedral. In 1447, the Wasselonne War (1446-1448) pitted the Grand Chapter of Strasbourg against William, Count of
Fénétrange and Walther von Dahn, who held the imperial fiefdom of Wasselonne from 1425 to 1483. Wasselonne was besieged and taken by the latter, then recaptured by Strasbourg troops who set fire to the castle in 1448. The conflict officially ended when Walther von Dahn sold the castle and the village to the city of Strasbourg, in 1496, for 7,000
florins. Between 1811 and 1919, Wasselonne was the second largest
tanning centre in the Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg being the first one. It was overtaken by
Barr during the next decades. During the
Second World War, eleven Jewish people from Wasselonne were deported by the Nazis and never returned from the extermination camps. To this list should be added the Protestant Henri Roederer who died in 1943. The only Jewish survivor of the camps is Jean Samuel, who died in 2010. He deported to the
Auschwitz extermination camp with the writer
Primo Levi, who made him the character of Pikolo in his book
If This Is a Man. ==Monuments==